Bait boats usually come as a standard product with optional extras available.
Below some of these are listed. Not all manufacturers will provide these.
Energy
Bait boats use quite a bit of energy as they power across the lake to drop your baits off on that hot spot. Some venues are just cast out once per 48 hours and wait, maybe a good angler gets one bite per 100 hours. Others are pretty intensive, and some only with the aid of the boat, so you need to use it again and again to keep the catch rate up. So the issue then is how to keep the charge up without going home to plug it into the wall.
Chargers
As with appliances such as mobile phones bait boats are normally charged with a standard mains socket charger (so 13 AMP), and most can be charged with in-car chargers as well. This may sound simple, but unlike a mobile phone the angler wanting to charge up a bait probably won’t want to do so while driving around; usually recharging is necessary whilst fishing.
Some vehicles have 9V sockets which are active whilst the car ignition is switched off – some vehicles do not. Even if your van or car does have this facility, remember that it will drain the vehicle battery. Some swims have parking available directly behind and in such instances an in-car charger will work like a dream.
Solar panels
Many boats now come with these chargers as an optional extra. This is a mirror panel usually no bigger than an unhooking mat with a cable. The angler needs to plug the cable in to the boat charging socket and then lay the panel out in daylight facing the sun.
Of course, to work it needs daylight at least, and the brighter the better.
Browse bait boat solar panels: click HERE.
Power packs
Many hardware and car parts retailers now stock ‘power packs’ which possess powerful batteries and a mains socket into which you can plus appliances.
This allows devices such as chargers to be plugged into a power source.
Make sure the devices are compatible before committing to this way of topping up your bait boat.
Browse power packs: click HERE.
Battery tester
Another useful piece of kit is a battery tester; this allows you to see the current battery level in the bait boat; often manufacturers provide these as additional extras, and the plug in to the power socket. In some cases they can also be used with a charging device.
Ariels
Most boats come with a standard ariel. This will allow a certain amount of functionality, over distance and so forth.
Quite often other types of ariel are also available as add ons. These will provide variations such as being floppy and able to operate under branches, whereas others will offer longer distance for the boat.
Hopper covers
Some bait boats are designed to allow the hopper (cargo bay) to be covered whilst the boat is on the lake being deployed. In some models, however, this is not the case and the hopper contents are open to the elements.
In most situations this will not be an issue. However, in some circumstances this can cause problems. In pouring rain PVA will have no protection. Some waters suffer from seagulls and other birds diving on boats as they are sent out.
Some manufacturers have created additional covers which can be purchased to fit over the hoppers and add further protection against the problems.
Lights
Most bait boats come with coloured lights on the edges and corners which allow the angler at night to establish where it is and which way it is facing.
Against the backdrop of a darkened lake at night it can be difficult to see where the boat is in relation to features such as islands or snags. One option that some manufacturers have come up with is a fitting to which can be attached a torch. This then allows the angler to be sure where the boat is and allows better navigation. Of course in many situations the use of a powerful torch from the bank circumvents this, but some fisheries do not allow the use of very powerful torches, and in some circumstances such use could scare off the very fish an angler is trying to catch.
Browse lights for bait boats: click HERE
Sonar
A sonar is a device that pings out a signal to the bottom of the water and then receives it back and shows the results on a digital display. Effectively a radar for baitboats.
There are some baitboat manufacturers who produce these for their boats, and some manufacture general sonars for use on any boat.
These sonars can detect the depth of the water below the boat, can determine the make up of the bottom of the water (ie. sand, gravel, weed, etc) and can also detect large fish or shoals of small fish. Often they are referred to as fish finders.
Browse sonars and fish finders: click HERE